Wings of Fire — Winglets: Sisters
by Princess Goldenrod
Summary: Burn was always thought to be the most sadistic dragon in Pyrrhia, but what if she was simply misunderstood, and the SandWing princess really had a heart beating somewhere in her chest despite all the sadistic things she'd done? From Blister's attempt on Blaze's life to Queen Oasis' death to the start of the SandWing war and to her death this is the world from Burn's vantage point.


**Author's note:** So I came up with a theory about Burn recently that maybe she wasn't a bad dragon and obsessed with killing things willingly, that she had a severe mental disorder from birth that had made her the way she was. Thinking about that possibility and the possibility that she did have a secret good side to her - you have to stop and remember the poem she had carved into Queen Oasis' monument; that's not something a dragon with no heart would've done - that she rarely showed. This story was the result of that.

I want to note, however, that many moments of this are _Winglets: Deserter_ and a scene from _The Brightest Night_ re-written from Burn's PoV (doing so intentionally because I found it fitting), with addition thoughts, descriptions, and moments added to those scenes, but some completely original scenes and moments that were fit in. I had a close friend read this early when we proofread it and he agreed that it did change his view of Burn a bit (and he'd just started hating her after he read _Deserter_ for what she did to Dune too!), so since that is what I was thinking when I started writing this, I hope it does that for others too.

Also: Major scene changes will be marked by having the year at the top of those scenes.

That's about all I have to say about this. Reading it should explain the rest to anyone that looks at this story.

* * *

 **4980 A.S.**

Burn was the odd dragon in her family. At least that's how everyone else in the palace felt about her. She was the oldest and biggest daughter of Queen Oasis of the SandWings and the queen's favorite daughter. She got along with Mother in a way she knew Blister never would. Burn knew that if any of them ever killed mother, it would be Blister and she felt Mother suspected it too. Burn and Oasis had always understood each other, unlike Oasis and Blister, even though Burn had an obsession with mutilating animals that nobody could explain. She always ignored the whispers going around the palace about her that she may have been 'born with something wrong with her brain'.

The SandWing princess couldn't stand Six-Claws nearly as much as she couldn't stand Blister. In her unique mind she thought Six-Claws believed that since his parents both served her mother — his mother Ostrich was a guard and his father Quicksand was a cook — that they were as important as she were, and Burn just knew Six-Claws' two sisters felt the same way as the rest of their family. It frankly made Burn want to stab them all in the face with her deadly tail barb repeatedly, and then stab Blister and crush that damn egg before it hatched for good measure. At least then she would have no competition for the throne; except for the queen herself of course. Mother had her sisters killed by somebody called Cobra, so her only heirs were her daughters. Well except for one sister but that one's days were numbered anyway because when Oasis' third and final egg hatched, another heir would never be seen again. Burn always hoped it would be Blister, but she knew in her heart Mother would have this 'Cobra' kill her last sister before any of her daughters.

Burn was watching Six-Claws and his parents at work in the kitchen, even though she wasn't sure what they were preparing for, if anything. She'd been so quiet so far — due to her boredom! She was literally trying not to fall asleep watching them run around like chickens with their heads cut off (something that Burn thought was much more entertaining than this, when she'd cut heads off chickens with her bare claws in the past) — that they'd probably forgotten she was even here but that was alright with Burn. She'd rather be unnoticed by a family of cooks than sit through yet another of Mother's boring meetings. Of course watching Six-Claws pound beetles into a glittering black power for Quicksand didn't exactly excite Burn either. She'd rather be in her room mutilating something right now but going to her room hadn't been Mother's alternative to sitting through another meeting.

She watched Ostrich come into the kitchen with her dark, whiteless eyes. Burn's stomach lurched at the way she affectionately brushed Six-Claws with her wing as she passed her son. She would never show that kind of affection to anyone and she doubted even more than she would ever want it back in return.

Quicksand looked up from one of the cauldrons, steam obscuring his face.

"Did you hear?" Ostrich asked Quicksand. "Another princess hatched today. The queen is calling her Blaze."

 _Oh that's great,_ thought Burn. _Now Mother will_ _kill_ _our last aunt. Such a shame she won't consider killing Blister instead. That dragon makes my skin crawl._ She looked up from her talons again.

"Really?" Quicksand dragged a tray of bread loaves out of the oven. "She's keeping it, then?"

"Her Majesty has always said she'd allow three heirs, no more," said Ostrich, taking the other edge to help him lift it onto the stone table. "So if she keeps Blaze, one of the others has to go."

Quicksand snorted. "That's easy. The one who likes cutting the legs off jackrabbits just to see what they'll do." He wrinkled his snout. "There was one flopping around the courtyard shrieking for an hour yesterday. Do you know how hard it is to stuff olives under those conditions?"

Burn flared her wings. They'd _definitely_ forgotten she was even here. She'd nearly spoken up but then it crossed her mind to wait and see what Ostrich would say. They'd pay for it one day, Burn just _knew_ they would. When she was queen, there would be consequences for how they were talking about her now. It'd be the _first_ thing she did as queen if she had any choice about it.

"She's creepy," Ostrich agreed and Burn shot her a glare, "but the one Queen Oasis _should_ get rid of is the other daughter, Blister. That dragon always looks like she's murdering you with her eyes. But it won't be either of them. It'll be the queen's sister, you'll see. She's much closer to challenging Her Majesty than the daughters are. It makes sense to dispose of her."

Burn grinned her trademark wicked, toothy grin. _Maybe you and I are on the same page, Ostrich. I may let how you're talking about me slide and not rip your face off after all. Your husband on the other talon, he's still on my list!_

"Challenge the queen?" Six-Claws interrupted. Burn could tell that he'd been eavesdropping on his parents' conversation. "Why would anyone do that?"

"To become the next queen," Quicksand answered with an amused expression that Burn didn't like. She wanted to walk right up to him and rip it clean off. "Because she thinks she'd be better at it than the current queen."

"No one could be a better queen than Queen Oasis!" Six-Claws insisted forcefully.

 _You're on my list too, Six-Claws,_ Burn thought spitefully. I _could be a better queen than Mother. Just you watch. When I am older, Blister and Blaze won't get the chance to challenge Mother to her throne. If Blister's even still alive by then. I know she wants to try and kill Mother now, but she's a fool if she thinks she can. We're still dragonets, for moons' sake. There's not a dragonet in Pyrrhia who could kill Mother. Not you, not me, not Blaze, not_ anyone _._

"That's absolutely right, dear," his mother said, wrapping one wing around him. "Don't worry, I'm sure she'll be queen for a long while yet. Although whoever comes after her, we'll be loyal to her, too."

Burn smiled with satisfaction. _You're my favorite out of this family,_ she thought. _I won't kill you when I'm queen. Your husband and son on the other talon, they will regret talking about me the way they have. Assuming I don't outright kill them, they'll never see the light of day again. Dungeon walls, total darkness and diseased rats will become their only friends._

Burn realized Ostrich was right about one other thing: by the next day, the queen's one remaining sister, Burn and her own sisters' remaining aunt, had vanished into thin air, and nobody ever mentioned her name again. It was as if she had never existed in the first place, but Burn wasn't really broken up by it or her other two aunts' disappearances. She'd never really known them or gotten along with them in the way she got along with Mother anyway.

After that, Queen Oasis assigned Six-Claws to watch the SandWing princesses differently, although Burn wasn't exactly happy about it. She knew it was because everyone thought 'now they weren't just royalty, they were deadly'. She understood they would be a threat to Mother now.

Well … two of them were as far as Burn was concerned.

The new hatch, Blaze, turned out to be one of the silliest dragonets Burn would ever meet. As soon as she could walk she started following any dragon she could find who was wearing treasure. The more sparkles, the better; she had a knack for zeroing in on the dragons with the most glittering jewelry.

Just as she was sure Six-Claws did, Burn suspected that if Blaze ever killed her mother, it wouldn't be for power or a throne; it would be for a pair of diamond earrings. And she wouldn't do it with her claws or her fire — she'd do it by annoying Mother to death.

* * *

 **4982 A.S.**

Burn watched Six-Claws as he watched her and her sisters for two years, but his first interaction with them didn't come until he was seven years old, Burn was nine years old, Blister was eight years old, and Blaze was two years old …

She was watching Six-Claws and her brother Smolder at this moment.

"My sisters are up to something," she heard Smolder saying and whipped her head around to watch him with her dark glare.

Six-Claws also looked up, squinting at the figure silhouetted against the blinding sun. He'd been trying to dig out a stubborn ball of roots from the palace garden for the better part of the morning. "Sisters are always up to something," he said, resting his arms on his shovel.

 _Not me,_ Burn thought with a hint of disdain. _I'm not the one who is surely plotting our Mother's death all the time. That's Blister. I'm the_ good _sister out of the three of us._

"True. But whatever my sisters are planning could bring down the kingdom." Smolder turned his head into the light, and Six-Claws tensed. Burn could tell he'd not realized it was her brother Smolder until now. The prince was from the same hatching as Blister, so he was two years older than Six-Claws. Burn knew they'd been on several missions together, although she'd rarely seen them speak to each other before now.

"Which sisters?" Six-Claws asked. "How do you know?"

"Burn and Blister," said the prince and Burn's tail flinched angrily. "They've been whispering together all morning."

 _Do they not even realize I'm here?_ Burn wondered. _What is with dragons and talking in front of me as if I'm invisible? That has had its advantages, but three moons, come on._

"Why are you telling me?" Six-Claws asked cautiously.

"Well," Smolder said, "I'm not sure what else to do. You seem kind of strong and sensible. I was hoping you could come up with something." He flicked his venomous tail around and sat down with an expectant expression.

"You should ask them what they're up to," Six-Claws suggested, jabbing at the root ball again. "You're their brother. They might tell you."

 _I wouldn't tell that misbegotten worm anything that Blister is planning. Yes, you two, keep believing a lie. I'm helping my little sister 'cause three moons she needs someone like me leading her. I'm not plotting anything. This is all Blister's idea. She just somehow convinced me to go along with it. She probably knew she needed my help to make her plan work, but who cares? If it's one less sister in my way, I'll do anything she says … for now. She'd better not get used to me not being_ her _boss. When I'm queen, she'd better get used to feeling like a talonlicker. That's as high of a rank I'll give that conniving viper … assuming I don't kill her soon as I'm on the throne. I don't want my only heir being somebody like_ her _._

"Ha ha!" The prince gave an odd shudder. "And draw their attention to me instead? No, thank you, that's not how survival works in this family."

"They can't be going after the queen," Six-Claws mused. "Not together. But I could warn my mother, just in case."

 _I'd never go after Mother!_ Burn thought with alarm. _Not until I am ready to challenge for the throne anyway._

"Who else would they be plotting against?" Smolder wondered.

Burn knew the realization just hit Six-Claws like a lightning bolt. "Your little sister," he said. He dropped the shovel and his wings snapped open. "Knock the number of heirs down to two." He scrambled out of the hole, shaking dirt off his claws. "Where is Blaze?"

"How would I know?" Prince Smolder jumped out of the way of the cascades of dust coming off Six-Claws. "So you'll take care of it?"

"Aren't you going to help me?" Six-Claws frowned at the prince. "Don't you want to protect your little sister?"

"I am!" Smolder shifted warily on his talons. "By telling you, and then staying alive so I can do it again next time! I'm sure you can handle it." He took another step back, then turned and hurried off into the palace.

"Wait!" Six-Claws called. "What about your brothers? Where are they?"

"Out on patrol," Smolder yelled back before he whisked around a corner and vanished.

* * *

The most awful sound Burn had ever heard any dragon make assaulted her ears as Six-Claws crashed through the last window of the palace to be closed before the sandstorm assaulted it from the outside.

"My crooooooooowwwwwn!" Princess Blaze wailed.

"Did you bring the entire desert in with you?" Burn heard one of them yelp at Six-Claws and her sister.

"Idiots! Waiting 'till the last minute!"

"Don't you know anything about sandstorms?"

"We should have left you out there!"

"Hey, that's Princess Blaze," said someone else, and a kind of hush fell over the room.

Burn chuckled. _Fools. Mother is going to have your heads now when she hears from Father how you talked about her baby. I hope she lets me watch your executions._

She watched Six-Claws blink. His vision must still be blurred, Burn assumed. He let go of the princess and sat up, trying to catch some of the sand that slid off his wings before it made even more of a mess on the floor.

"RrrrrrROAR!" Blaze shouted, shoving him away. She jumped to her feet and shook herself vigorously, covering him and the room and the dragons around them with even more sand. "You ruined everything and now I'll never find it! MOOOMMY!"

Burn couldn't help but chuckle again. Sure, Blister's plan to kill Blaze had failed just like she knew it would, but there was something amusing about this. _Maybe there is a secret fighter somewhere in that dizzy-headed dragonet,_ she thought. _I don't think she'll ever let it out though._

"Your mother is overseeing the sandstorm lockdown," said a tall, burly dragon, shoving through the crowd to stand over her. "So you can tell me what exactly you were doing so far outside the palace."

Blaze puffed up her chest. "You're not the boss of me!"

 _Big mistake,_ Burn thought. _Fool doesn't even recognize Father._

"I'm one of them," he said sternly. "I am your father."

Burn turned her head back to Six-Claws as he tried to rub away the grit in his eyes so he could see better. Char was the queen's husband, referred to by most SandWings as the king, although he had only as much power as Queen Oasis let him have. Sometimes he went everywhere with the queen, welcomed into advisory meetings and diplomatic gatherings, and then sometimes they would fight and he'd be exiled from the palace for months at a time.

Burn knew it was safest to be polite and respectful to Father, but never get too close, because you wouldn't want Mother to associate you with him the next time he fell out of favor.

As Blaze launched into a long, complicated story about her friends and her stolen crown, Burn saw Six-Claws turn and find Dune behind him, wide-eyed.

"That was alarming," Dune said. "I thought you weren't going to make it back."

Six-Claws shrugged. "We did. I'd better go shake off this sand in one of the baths."

"Father," said a cold voice, slicing through Blaze's breathless narrative. "Shouldn't we ask the name of the dragon who took our little sister out into such terrible danger?"

A chill like midnight in the desert slithered down Burn's spine. She watched the crowd part around her little sister as she stepped forward. Her obsidian-black eyes raked over Six-Claws. Burn knew this was how Blister practically analyzed anyone and fitting him into a category — she knew Blister was categorizing him as something like Irksome, Nuisance or Idiot Who Ruined My Plan.

"He didn't take her out there!" Dune said, raising his tail defensively. "He saw her out there alone and rescued her, that's what he did!"

"Ah," said Blister. Her tail rattled softly on the floor. "Really. What a hero."

 _There's ironic justice that your plan to kill Blaze failed,_ Burn thought with a hidden grin. She didn't want Blister seeing that she'd wanted her dark plan to fail.

"Right," said Dune, subsiding. "That's what he is. His name is Six-Claws. And I'm Dune, by the way."

"SIX-Claws?" Blaze interrupted. She wriggled out of her father's arms and flounced over to inspect Six-Claws' talons. "Ew! Three moons! You really do have six claws on each foot! That's so weird! I can't believe you touched me with those!" She leaned closer to stare at the extra claws, then jumped back quickly when he pulled his talons into his chest.

Burn's eyes fell on Six-Claws' talons for the first time. She'd never given thought to how there must be a reason Ostrich and Quicksand had given him such an odd name. She realized it was true when she saw that he _did_ in fact have six claws on both his feet rather than five.

 _Hmm. When he's dead, I call dibs on them. They're so odd, so creepy that they'd be_ perfect _for my macabre collection Mother doesn't know about._ She'd done a good job at keeping it hidden from her parents. It helped that they trusted her enough not to worry about inspecting her room as often as they inspected Blister's.

"Yeeeeeeee," Blaze said scornfully. She held out her own perfect, beautiful talons, decorated with three glittering rings. "I'm so glad _I_ have the right number of claws."

"I'm sure what my daughter is trying to say," Char interjected, "is thank you for saving her life." He gently steered Blaze away from Six-Claws, toward the mirrors across the hall. The little SandWing took one look at herself, gasped in horror, and stormed off toward the baths, radiating outrage.

"We should reward such a brave hero," Blister purred, slithering an inch closer to Six-Claws. Burn thanked the moons that wasn't her. She'd probably shove Blister away then head off to the baths like Blaze had. She _hated_ when Blister touched her. Burn didn't know why, but Blister's touch made her shiver. "I can think of a few missions he'd be _perfect_ for…"

 _Yeah, missions he won't come back from,_ Burn thought.

"I have a better idea," Char said, cutting her off. Blister narrowed her eyes at him, but he didn't seem to notice. "Brave and strong and a swift flier for your age — how would you like to join the army, Six-Claws? We could use a soldier like you. You could make your way up to captain pretty fast, maybe general one day."

"If that's what the queen wants, sir," Six-Claws said.

"I'll see to it," Char said with a nod.

Burn saw Dune jab Six-Claws in the side and he whipped around, tail up, before realizing it was Dune, with a very meaningful expression on his face.

"Uh," Six-Claws said. "My, um … my friend Dune helped, too."

"Oh, yes?" said Char. "Would you like to join the army as well, dragonet?"

"Yes, please, sir!" Dune said eagerly.

"Hmmm. You're a bit young, but we can put you in basic training for now. I'll have you two assigned to the same battalion." Char nodded again, looking pleased with himself, and wandered away.

Outside, the wind was howling and rattling the shutters with enormous fury.

 _Oh,_ Burn thought. _You'll be sweeping sand out of_ every _crevice of the palace tomorrow when Mother sees how big of a mess it is. And I_ hope _she has me supervising you. It's about time I make you pay for how your family talked about me._

She turned and saw Blister fix a malevolent glare on Six-Claws before she slipped out of the room.

* * *

 **4992 A.S.**

Burn yawned loudly — disrespectfully, if it was her mother thinking instead — as she slipped into her room. She made sure the door was locked behind her. There would be no one waking her up from her nap tonight.

The smell of death was strong in Burn's room, but she knew nobody could smell it as long as the door was closed. That was one way she had kept her macabre collection hidden from Mother and Father for the past fifteen years she had been adding to it. They knew she had a habit of mutilating things and had never really done anything about it, but they _didn't_ know that she also kept anything she killed. She had been stuffing her favorite collectibles in secret, too.

Burn knew she was probably the only dragon in Pyrrhia who enjoyed the odor of death — well, except maybe the SkyWing princess who had just risen to the throne last year. There were also rumors that Scarlet had turned the now dead Queen Hurricane's arena from a means of harmless entertainment for the SkyWings into a place where her late mother's slaves killed each other as the new form of entertainment. That sounded like the kind of thing Burn would love to take part in. Maybe if something happened that prevented her from becoming queen that she didn't foresee she could go to the Sky Kingdom and fight in the new queen's gladiator arena instead.

As she sat down on the edge of her bed inhaling the odor of death, Burn recalled a rumor that surely couldn't be true. It had to be the result of miscommunication between Mother and her spies in the Sky Kingdom. Scarlet had supposedly cast a spell to kill Queen Hurricane the night before they were supposed to fight rather than fighting her talon-to-talon. Burn didn't know how true that was. Mother had made her study history when she was a dragonet and she'd learned SkyWings hadn't had an animus since the time of Darkstalker — _Whoever that was,_ Burn thought, recalling that the history books didn't talk about him in depth. — because they had always thrown their animus off cliffs when they hatched, so the gene had eventually died out among SkyWings. But if Scarlet was an animus … well somebody didn't do their job right two thousand years ago.

Suddenly, just as Burn laid down on her side on her animal fur-lined bed, a fierce roar tore through the night. She ran to her room's window just in time to see a blast of fire light up the sky beyond the palace wall, followed by more roaring, wild and agonized as though someone was being murdered.

Then came a commotion from the soldiers who had been watching over Smolder so he didn't do something regretful amidst his grief for his missing lover Palm, who had been with an egg. Burn had always warned him it was a mistake to get her pregnant, but Smolder hadn't listened, so she thought it was just what the pair of lovers deserved. She hoped Palm was dead and Mother had ripped the egg out of her and crushed it.

"What is that?" she heard Dune cry.

"It sounded like Mother," she heard her oldest brother Scald say and her heart immediately sank. ( _What happened to Mother?_ she thought with a great amount of concern.) "But I thought she was asleep."

"Let's go find out." Burn watched Six-Claws dart out of the tent with the others behind him. They raced to the nearest courtyard, opened their wings, and flowed over the palace rooftops. The roaring had stopped, leaving only echoes like shredded holes in the air.

Burn saw other dragons join them, calling to one another in confusion, and so it was a fair crowd that came over the top of the outer walls together …

Burn heard somebody shriek a long wordless cry of rage but she couldn't see what was happening now because of the wall around the palace all those dragons had flown over.

She thought it might have been Scald, or it might have been Ostrich but she didn't know.

"Who did this?" she heard Ostrich yell from beyond the wall. "Who killed our queen?"

 _MOTHER IS DEAD?!_ Burn's mind roared and she took off out her room's window.

"Was there a duel?" another dragon asked as Burn flew toward the wall. "Did I miss it?"

"I didn't hear about a challenge," she heard her last brother Singe answer, and she saw him looking around blankly. "In the middle of the night? Out here? With no witnesses?"

Burn suddenly landed with a violent thump on the sand, knocking two dragons over. She stormed forward and glared down at the queen's corpse, quivering with rage, grief, confusion, and a number of other emotions she had never felt before. She _knew_ she wouldn't feel this way about anyone but Mother. There was no one else in the kingdom she respected. Burn hadn't even been upset when the plague killed Father (and Six-Claws' father Quicksand too, but she thought he deserved it for saying Mother should have killed her to bring the number of heirs to three).

The widowed Ostrich swallowed and took a step back, dipping her head to signal cautious respect.

Burn saw her, but she just stood there, breathing heavily. She figured Ostrich knew she would have snapped at her if she said anything immediately. Her blood was boiling like the water she'd scalded a family of birds alive in yesterday and she felt like ripping something in half to vent all these emotions she was feeling.

After a moment, Ostrich ventured, "Was it you, Your Highness? Are you now our queen?"

Burn growled, low and deep in her throat. "No," she snarled. "I didn't kill her." Ostrich started to raise her head and Burn snapped, "But it wasn't Blister either! I just saw her!"

"Was it … Blaze, then?" someone in the crowd asked.

There was an awkward pause as everyone tried to imagine the queen's spacey daughter successfully attacking her. Burn and Six-Claws both looked around and realized Blaze wasn't even there. She probably slept right through all this noise. Wearing jeweled earplugs or buried in expensive pillows.

"It wasn't any of us," Blister's voice said icily from a shadow near the palace wall. She stalked across the sand, flicking her tail menacingly. "Mother wasn't killed by any of her daughters."

Burn faced her sister across Mother's body, each of them sizzling with coiled tension. Burn was older and bigger than Blister, with more battle experience and the scars to show for it. But everyone knew that Blister was smarter … and that made them truly unsure who would win in a fight. But Burn … she believed that if she had ever fought Blister, she would kill her with the greatest of ease. It would probably be more of a challenge to kill Blaze because the dizzy-headed sister was the fastest flier among them, and she would run away from a fight before she stood her ground. _That makes her smarter than Blister in a way,_ Burn thought, but barely realized it. _At least she_ knows _she'd never last if she tried standing her ground against her. Blister is a fool if she does._

"So …" Singe asked carefully. "If none of you killed her … then, um … who's our next queen?"

Blister hissed, dragging one claw through the sand. "I was going to challenge her soon," she said.

"So was I," Burn snapped back, then glanced at Mother's corpse again. Was it sadness she felt? Burn wondered. She wasn't sure. _Sorry, Mother. I respect you, but I would've had to challenge you before Blister did. She isn't the sort of queen they need on your throne. She'd ruin your kingdom. I know there are dragons who hate me too, but at least I wouldn't do things that would drive the kingdom into the ground._

Beyond his sisters, lit by the pale moonlight, Smolder's eyes were shining. He was nothing but happy to see his mother dead. But Burn knew that Six-Claws and other soldiers had been with Smolder when they'd heard the roars. Even if Smolder had wanted to kill his mother for what happened to Palm, he couldn't have done it tonight.

"Maybe you two should fight right now," Scald suggested to his sisters. "Whoever wins gets to be queen. That seems fair, right?"

Blister shot him an unreadable but unpleasant look.

"Not exactly fair to Blaze, though," Singe pointed out, and got his own withering glare from both sisters. "Yeah, all right, I know. You two duke it out."

Burn curled her talons, ready to lunge at her sister. _I'll rip you apart swiftly and be done with it,_ she thought, then remembered Blaze. _I won't even need to kill Blaze. She'd never have the guts to fight me. I just need_ you _out of the way,_ she realized as she glared into Blister's soul. _Blaze is no threat, just annoying. But I can throw some gems at her and she'll be out of my scales._

"This hardly seems like the time or place," Blister said calmly, taking a slight step away from Burn. "I mean, priorities, my dear brothers. Surely first we must find out who did this to our poor beloved mother." She tilted her head at Burn and whispered, "Besides, we don't have the Eye of Onyx."

 _You slithering coward,_ Burn thought, but said nothing. _You don't want to fight me because we need to find out who killed Mother. You don't want to because you know I'll kill you before you can get your talons up and your fire ready._

Not many dragons heard her, but Six-Claws was close enough to catch her words. Burn knew he didn't understand them, though. There was an Eye of Onyx in the treasury, but what did that have to do with dueling for the throne?

"Right," Burn finally said, slowly opening her claws again and feeling as though her anger was about to explode out of her. Everytime she glanced at Mother's corpse, her heart ached. "Of course. Who killed our mother. That's what we need to figure out," she said, raising her voice to address all the gathered dragons. "Admit it now, whoever did this! Don't make us start gouging out your eyes!"

A shuffling flutter ran through the crowd as everyone stared at everyone else, searching for a guilty expression or bloody talons.

Burn noticed that the odd mammal smell was stronger out here. And then, at the same time Six-Claws did, she saw for the first time that there was a small spear sticking out of the queen's eye.

She watched Six-Claws crouch, peering closer. It wasn't a dragon-sized spear; it was only about as long as his foreleg and so thin he could probably snap it between his teeth. Was this what had killed her? This tiny thing?

Burn scanned the rest of her body for other wounds and discovered the strangest thing of all.

Someone had cut off her venomous tail barb.

"Three moons," Six-Claws said. "Who would —"

"Search the area," Burn commanded. She was swelling to twice her normal size, her wings flaring and her voice suddenly ringing like a queen's. "Whoever did this can't have gotten far. We will find them and punish them!"

The SandWings immediately spread out and started shooting flames into all the shadows or poking the dunes with their tails. Their shouts and growls filled the night, and Burn sensed them all thinking they would not want to be the murderer, hiding somewhere nearby. Even anything that wasn't the murderer, like a desert rat, was liable to get stomped by a crusading dragon tonight.

"Hey!" Smolder shouted, digging in a sand dune several feet away. "I found something!"

Burn's head snapped up. "What is it?" she barked.

"It's —" Smolder stopped and looked up, confusion written all over his face. "It's a scavenger."

Burn immediately swiped up the screeching scavenger in her talons and shoved her toward her mouth. "You'll pay for what you did to Mother you pathetic sack of blood and guts," she snarled and opened wide.

"Don't!" Smolder cried.

"You dare challenge me?!" Burn roared. "Do you want me to kill you first then this … thing? I have no qualms about fratricide when I have a reason for it, Smolder. This creature killed Mother and you want me to spare it?! What is wrong with you?"

"I … I want to study it. I mean, when have dragons ever tried studying scavengers before?"

"Never," Burn snarled. "They're only good as midnight snacks if you ask me. This one … I wouldn't eat her. I'd make her suffer like she made Mother. And … I've never stuffed a scavenger before. She'd be perfect for my collection … as a reminder of avenging Mother." Burn pressed her face close to the scavenger's and she began screaming. "Yes, scream you little monster. You'll regret killing Mother one day." She looked back to Smolder. "Take the pathetic thing but keep her away from me." She threw the scavenger _hard_ at Smolder as if she were a ball. He managed to catch the screaming creature in his talons as Burn glared at them both. "My brother is a damn scavenger hugger! What has this world come to?" she roared as she stormed off to begin planning what they would all do next.

She wasn't going to let the other scavengers who killed Mother get away with the stolen treasure or Mother's tail.

* * *

 **4996 A.S.**

The next few years passed in an exciting blur. Six-Claws was one of the dragons who Burn ordered to chase down the scavengers that had escaped with the queen's tail barb and the stolen treasure. Burn had set their dens on fire and burned all the scavengers' homes to the ground. She made Six-Claws help to hunt through the ashes and then, when they found no treasure, flew back to the palace behind Burn, only to discover that the SandWing treasury had been completely emptied. Four rooms full of gems and gold — all of it gone, vanished into thin air, presumably stolen by the scavengers, although no one could figure out how or where they'd put it.

Burn remembered the councils and arguments and trials that followed, everyone fighting over who should be the next queen and how it should be decided. It was after Blister had taken off with half the army, and Blaze had escaped and fled north with a squadron of loyal guards before she could kill Blister.

Burn had learned there was one thing she loved more than mutilating animals, and that was war. When she heard that Blister was negotiating alliances with the SeaWings and MudWings, intending to bring their armies with her to fight for the SandWing throne, Burn was horribly delighted. As she had said to General Needle, two sisters out there lurking and scheming was just annoying — but armies coming to attack her, that she could handle. That meant violence and mayhem and fun.

She had sent Prince Smolder to the Sky Kingdom immediately to forge an alliance with their queen, Scarlet, reasoning that a possible animus queen who loved fighting as much as she did would make the _perfect_ ally they needed in this brewing war.

Burn had also tried to contact the IceWings, which was how she discovered that they were protecting Blaze and considering joining the new war themselves.

"I hope they do!" Burn cried gleefully, storming through the construction going on outside the palace. Queen Oasis had been buried where she fell, and a monument was raised over her grave. The monument had an inscription that Burn had written herself for Mother in large golden letters, only the best for her:

"HERE LIES

QUEEN OASIS

MOTHER OF QUEEN BURN

HER BONES NOW BELONG TO THE SANDS OF TIME"

Burn had ordered another layer of thick walls built all around the outside, beyond the monument, turning the palace into an unassailable stronghold to keep scavengers out from now on. She knew they'd never get over _this_ wall. But even if a rare one or two did, they wouldn't get very far before they were eaten by her guards.

"More dragons to fight!" Burn roared. "More territory to conquer! We'll crush them all in a matter of weeks!"

* * *

 **5003 A.S.**

Burn couldn't have imagined it wouldn't be a matter of weeks. The war dragged on, and on, and on for years, and in that time Ostrich and many others died in battle. Burn had promoted Six-Claws to general for staying loyal to her for the past eleven years. She knew loyalty ran deep in Six-Claws' blood, even if it was because he didn't see any other choice. She hadn't forgotten that Ostrich and Quicksand both raised him to be loyal to Mother, so he naturally had to be loyal to her, the standing queen until this war ended.

Then Burn had her brother Singe killed for annoying her. "He shouldn't have questioned my order and tried to convince me to drop out of the war!" she'd told her soldiers, including Six-Claws.

Then came a night about two weeks after Singe's death where Burn saw Six-Claws flying back to camp with his battalion from her tower. According to the lieutenant who'd briefed her, they had just fought a particularly crushing battle with the IceWings in which they'd lost four good dragons. On top of that, the lieutenant had added, Dune had been badly injured. One of his forearms had been bitten nearly in two and his wing had been hit by a blast of frostbreath.

Burn watched with interest as Six-Claws' battalion landed beside the medical tent in the center of camp, and three dragons immediately emerged, clustering around Dune. She could still see and hear it all as she observed from the top of her tower.

"He needs heat on that wound, and fast," Six-Claws said, pointing to the glistening ice crystals and blue-black scales along the edge of Dune's wing. "Do everything you can for him."

"Of course, sir," one of them answered.

"He might lose the foot," said another, studying Dune's damaged foreleg, "but he needs his wings more. We can save those."

Queen Burn walked up behind Six-Claws just as he turned around.

"Your Majesty," he said with a bow.

"Still alive," she commented.

"Me?" he said. "Yes, I'm afraid so."

"Show me your claws again," she ordered. She did this every time she saw her general, even though she knew it made him sick and uncomfortable. He held out his front talons.

"Yessss," Burn hissed, taking them in hers and staring at them greedily. She tugged on his sixth claw on each side and eyed his face to see if he'd react. He kept his expression blank.

"Your soldiers remember their orders, do they?" Burn said. "When you die in battle, they know they are to cut off your arms and bring them to me."

"Yes, Your Majesty," he said. "They know. They won't forget."

Everyone knew exactly what she wanted to do with Six-Claws' talons. One day, when he died, she would happily dismember him and preserve his odd-looking claws in her creepy weirdling tower, along with all the other strange and horrible things she'd collected over the years.

Burn finally dropped his talons with a snort. "Well, as long as you're still alive, you'd better make yourself useful. We're going to attack the MudWings. Pack everyone up. We move out tomorrow."

"What?" Six-Claws blurted.

"Don't disappoint me by being deaf and slow as well," she growled. "The MudWings. We're attacking them. As soon as possible." She chuckled. "My spies tell me there's been a rift between the SeaWings and the MudWings. Blister's alliance is falling apart. This is the time to attack! If we strike now, we can intimidate the MudWings into joining our side. Then we'll be unstoppable."

"But wait," Six-Claws said. "What about our plan? The whole strategy we worked out?"

" _Your_ plan, you mean," said Burn. "I know, I know. Focus our energy here until we find Blaze and kill her, so we only have one enemy instead of two." She yawned. "Boring. You haven't found Blaze yet and I hate waiting."

"We've only been looking for a few weeks," Six-Claws protested. "They're fighting hard to keep her hidden. I'm sure today's battle was close to her hiding spot."

"You know," Burn sneered, "if you want Blaze dead so badly, perhaps you shouldn't have saved her life all those years ago." She flicked her tail at the shouts of pain coming from the medical tent. "Maybe all of this is your fault."

"Your Majesty," he said as calmly as he could. "I strongly believe that we should stick with our current strategy."

"Well, I strongly believe that we should go kill some MudWings," she said. "And I am your queen, so that means I always win."

"Can we discuss this?" he asked. "I can show you the maps — our deductions — our next steps — we have it all worked out."

"You disloyal worm," Burn snarled. "I can see you need a little extra persuasion." She pushed past him and shoved her way into the medical tent.

He started to follow her, but suddenly there was a hiss from the shadows beside the tent.

"Who's there?" Burn heard him say but she kept going. She heard Six-Claws' conversation with the other dragon —

"You don't have to follow Burn. She doesn't deserve it."

"Who should I follow instead? I suppose you have someone in mind. Blister?"

"Dear snakes, no! Why follow any of them? There's always the Scorpion Den, right? Plenty of SandWings there who don't fight for anyone. From what I've heard anyhow."

"Deserters. That's not me. I'm loyal."

"Loyal to what? Do you even know why you follow her anymore? She's not a good queen. You are helping a viper and making her stronger and more poisonous. Can't you see that? If you can't, you will soon, I'm afraid."

— but didn't really care about it. He would stay loyal to her. She knew he would. Burn had more important things to worry about anyway. Her general's wounded best friend. She glared at Dune as the nurses stayed back nervously, then roared, "SIX-CLAWS! Get in here!" But she knew she needed to make sure he would stay loyal, and there was only one way she could do that.

"Think about it," Burn heard the stranger's voice say, and before she knew it, Six-Claws pushed through the flaps into the tent just as she stood over Dune.

Six-Claws' friend was lying on a low pile of blankets, unconscious, with his wings spread out on either side of him. Sacks filled with fire-heated stones were packed around the frostbreath injury on his wing and also around his front leg. The IceWing had raked Dune with her serrated claws as well.

"This is the little toad who follows you around, isn't it?" Burn asked. She jabbed one of the hot stone bags so it slid off Dune's wing.

Six-Claws started forward. "He needs that —"

"Don't move," Burn snarled. She pushed another healing pack off the injured dragon, and Dune made a small noise of pain, but didn't wake up. Behind Burn, one of the doctors was wringing her talons like she wanted to intervene but didn't dare.

"Please. Don't hurt him," Six-Claws said. "He's a loyal soldier to you."

"And what are you?" Burn demanded. "Tell me, where are we going tomorrow?"

Six-Claws hesitated. "I'll do what you say, Your Majesty. I will. But if I could have just one more day to look for Blaze—"

Burn slammed her talons down on Dune's injured wing. Dune came awake screaming as the frozen parts snapped off completely, leaving only misshapen, blackened ruin. Burn sliced her claws through the tendons and membranes, destroying what was left of the wing.

"No!" Six-Claws shouted, then he was tackled by the other SandWings in the tent as he lunged toward the queen.

"Unquestioning obedience," Burn said to him. "That's really all I ask." She kicked Dune aside and shook the blood off her claws. "So, General. Where are we going tomorrow?"

There were at least three dragons pinning him down. Six-Claws took a deep breath. "The Mud Kingdom," he said into the ground.

"Much better." Burn stepped over him, nearly smacking him in the face with her deadly tail. "You're lucky you're such a useful general, or I would just take those fascinating talons for my tower and be done with these boring arguments. Oh, and Six-Claws." She stopped in the opening of the tent and looked back at him. "The next time you feel like questioning my orders, remember that your friend there has another wing … and a tail … and three working legs, all of which could meet with even more horrible accidents. Understood?"

"Yes, Your Majesty." Six-Claws didn't look at her. He kept his eyes closed and his face in the sand as she left the tent feeling satisfied that Six-Claws would still be loyal. She had no concern that what the stranger he'd spoken with had convinced him to leave, as she flew back to her tower.

* * *

 **5011 A.S.**

Burn glared at Smolder when he nervously slinked into her throne room. His scavenger wasn't with him and she assumed that was for Flower's safety. Burn had always hated the little creature for killing Mother. She still didn't understand how she'd let Smolder talk her out of killing the scavenger, their mother's _murderer_ , nineteen years ago.

" _What_?" Burn growled at him. _You're really getting on my last nerve, Smolder,_ she thought. _You're_ this _close to ending up like Scald and Singe if you keep pestering me._

"Your Majesty, there is a problem," said Smolder.

Burn was suddenly intrigued. "Yes?"

"The dragonets are outside your tower," he went on, "but so are Queen Glory, Queen Moorhen and Queen Coral and hundreds of other dragons — Outclaws, MudWings, SeaWings, a handful of RainWings, and a NightWing. They're all just waiting out there — and they've started tearing down the severed heads from your wall."

 _Scumbags,_ Burn thought.

"What will you do, Your Majesty?"

"I will meet with them," she said. _And if I must, kill them all, if they have not chosen me as queen of the SandWings. Those dragonets have had long enough to choose one of us. I know they've met Blister and Blaze by now._ "They wanted to see me and by the moons they will."

She stood up from her throne and charged past Smolder, nearly knocking him over in her hurry to head outside.

Burn let out a rumbling growl from the dark entrance to the old palace as she stepped out into the moonlight. She looked from the dragons lined along the wall, surprisingly including the queens of the MudWings and SeaWings just as Smolder had claimed, before her eyes landed on seven dragons standing in the middle of the courtyard, not far from Mother's monument.

 _Seven?_ she wondered. _The prophecy said there was only five dragonets. So why are there three NightWings when there should only be one?_

Her black eyes glittered and her stained claws gleamed with fresh blood as she slithered across the stones toward them.

"So you came," she hissed. "I thought the rumors couldn't possibly be true." She cast a seething look up at the hundreds of watching dragons. "I hope you have a good reason for disrupting my battle plans."

"This war is over," Sunny said, as loud as she could. There was a ripple of whispers along the walls as her words were passed along.

"Really," said Burn. _Big words for such a small dragon,_ she thought, actually impressed. She knew this was the stunted SandWing who'd somehow escaped from her tower. She wouldn't be surprised if Smolder had something to do with Sunny's escape and that was why she would kill him later, just like she killed their other two brothers. "Because you say so, is that it?"

"Because we all say so," Tsunami retorted. She flared her wings to include all the dragons above and around them.

"Interesting," said Burn. "But I see a problem. In fact, I see two problems, flying this way right now." She glanced at the horizon, first to the east and then to the north. A mass of dragons was arriving from both directions.

Sunny looked north and spotted flashing silver scales.

"It's possible I won't kill you," Burn said. "After all, you've brought me my sisters to kill, which is more help than any other dragons have been." _Much more help than that six-clawed freak of nature was,_ she thought scathingly, realizing that he was among the Outclaws. _He will still pay for abandoning his soldiers — and_ me _— like that. That nurse too — what was her name again? Kindle? Oh, who cares what her name was? Dragons all die the same!_ "Then again, you're very annoying."

"This is not about killing," Sunny said.

The sounds of wingbeats were getting closer, so she turned to watch Blister land next to the Queen Oasis monument. Blister sank her talons into the sand for a moment, shooting a deadly look up at the obelisk.

Blaze and Queen Glacier landed a moment later, off to Sunny's left. Blaze eyed her sisters nervously, staying close to the IceWing's side. Blister slithered out of the sand and paced slowly between Sunny and Clay, her snakelike gaze pinned on Burn as she circled her older sister.

"You're still alive," Blister remarked in a cold, calm voice. "That's a pity." She paused and narrowed her eyes at the dragonets. "I was hoping you'd have my sisters dead before I got here."

"What?" Burn snarled. "They've chosen me as queen, not you." _If they've even thought about choosing_ you _, I'll kill you right now you snake. I've believed all these years you had something to do with Mother's death. Don't think I didn't see the way you looked at Mother when you thought nobody was looking. You had_ every _reason to plot against Mother so she would die. Even_ I _wouldn't stoop as low as starting a war just to kill my sisters — I would have done it with my own talons than let all the other tribes spill their own blood for me. You're a coward and a snake, Blister, and you always have been. Mother should have killed you instead of our last aunt the day Blaze was born. So help me, Blister, if I found out you had something to do with Mother's death. I'll kill you a hundred times over._

"No way!" Blaze cried, snapping Burn out of her thoughts, then she hurriedly backed into Glacier as her sisters whipped their heads toward her. "They picked me! They told me to come here!"

"We haven't chosen any of you," Sunny said firmly. "And we're definitely not killing any of you."

"Unless we have to," Glory observed. "Feel free to provoke us."

"Shh," Clay said, nudging her.

 _She looks odd for a SkyWing,_ Burn thought, then realized this must be the RainWing replacement she'd heard all about. Which meant that was the queen of the RainWings and the NightWings who was also the RainWing that venomed Ex-Queen Scarlet when the dragonets escaped the Sky Kingdom. _She's come a long way in such a short time. I can't deny that I'm truly impressed with you, RainWing. I never thought I'd say that about a RainWing. Now keep on impressing me Glory, and I may just let you worms all leave here alive —_ if _you make the right decision and say_ I'm _the new queen of Mother's tribe._

"We're here to find a peaceful solution," Sunny announced. "Either you three decide among you, peacefully, who's going to be queen, or everyone else here will decide for you. No more armies. No more dead dragons."

Burn barked a harsh, disbelieving laugh. "I have a better idea," she snarled. "First I kill my sisters, and then I kill all of you, and then I stuff you and spend the next hundred years telling your dead face about peaceful solutions."

There was a flurry of movement from the part of the wall where the Outclaws were perched.

"No one is going to let you do that," she said to Burn.

"In fact," Blister interjected suddenly, "I've already made a gesture of peace. Didn't you get my present, Burn?" An eerie silence fell for a moment as Burn stared down at her. "I was thinking," Blister hissed into the stillness, "that this war has gone on too long. I thought if I sent you a gift … something I know you've always wanted … that perhaps we could … mend fences and reunite the family." She bared her teeth at the palace entrance where Smolder was hiding just inside the doorway.

"Aha," Burn snarled. _I remember now. I should have known it was her that sent it._ "That was from you. Smolder, bring me the box."

"Now?" he said.

"Don't argue with me," she growled, and he vanished into the palace. _He's definitely dying when we're finished here_ , she thought with a guttural growl. _Disobedient worm isn't any better than Scald and Singe. Brothers! They_ never _listen._

Smolder returned a few moments later, carrying the box from the top floor of the weirdling tower where Burn had chained Sunny up. As he set it down in front of Burn, it let out a malevolent hiss.

"Burn, be careful," Sunny said. "I — I think this might be a trick."

"Of course it is," Burn said. "Especially if it's from my clever little sister. Sending me a present, thinking I'll open it without any suspicion. As if I don't recognize the hiss of the dragonbite viper when I hear it." _She's trying to trick me into my own death just like I know she did Mother,_ she thought. _Well it's_ not _going to happen. I'm smarter than you and anyone thinks, sister. You'll find out soon enough_ _when_ _your snake's fangs are buried in your throat — before I rip it out._

"It's not a trick," Blister said coolly. "I know you've always wanted one for your collection."

"Dragonbite viper?" Fatespeaker whispered to Starflight.

"Rare and deadly," he whispered back. "The only snake in Pyrrhia that can kill a dragon with one bite." He shifted nervously on his talons. "If that's really what's in there…. I hope that's not really what's in there."

"Well, the trick's on you," Burn said. _This is it, sister. You. Die. Now. Mother_ will _be avenged_ today _._ She sank her claws into the top of the box and ripped it off with a vicious tearing sound. Fast as lightning, her talons shot into the box and lifted out a writhing, hissing rope of scaly fury. The snake's head was pinned between Burn's claws so it couldn't bite her. Its whole body wriggled and lashed like the eels attacking in the SeaWing prison.

"I know your sick, twisted mind. You thought this would kill me," Burn snarled at Blister. "So it'll be very poetic when it kills you instead." She took a step toward her sister and then stopped suddenly, looking down. _What in the name of all the moons?_ she wondered, then she saw it, and felt a ping of horror. _You rotten, conniving, moonblazed wench. I should have known there'd be_ two _!_

"Oh," Blister said, "I got you two. Did I leave out that part?"

Before Burn could get out of its attack range, a second dragonbite viper lunged out of the box and sank its teeth into Burn's ankle. Its venomous fangs slid like shards of ice right between her scales, sending the worst pain Burn had ever felt in her life rushing through her muscles in an instant.

The screaming seemed to come from everywhere at once, even from herself, Burn realized. Blaze was probably screaming the loudest, shrieking and flapping her wings as if she were the one who'd been bitten. All along the walls, dragons were pushing and yelling and leaning in to get a better look or taking off into the sky to get as far away from the snakes as possible.

Burn stamped one foot down on the second snake, crushing it, but it was too late. Black veins were shooting up her leg and spreading through her scales. _Damn the moons! My moonblazed sister … she_ did _trick me just like I know she tricked Mother. Well, if I'm going to die, I'm taking her with me. If I can't have Mother's throne, …_ neither _.. is … she._ Burn's vision began to blur and pain was beginning to rush through her entire body as she stepped toward Blister, snarling with more hate than she'd ever felt for somebody before. She didn't even hate that traitor Six-Claws this much.

"What's happening?" Starflight asked, reaching out for Sunny.

Sunny touched his wing with her own. "There was a second snake in the box — and it bit Burn."

Blister was watching her sister's death throes with an enthralled, smug smile on her face.

Burn let out a furious roar and collapsed to the ground with a crash that shook the earth. Her wings twitched and convulsed as if they were possessed. She clawed at the air, reaching for Blister.

"I'll kill you," she snarled. "I'll claw that — I'll — it hurts — stop it, stop the —" _Oh, bloody moons, this is hell. But she'll still pay! I'm not dying without taking Blister … with me! You'll_ never _be queen. Even if I die … you will not ruin Mother's name, I won't let you! You won't ruin Mother's name or Pyrrhia. I … would have made it a better place. Nobody would believe that … but it's the truth._ She roared again, howling her agony at the sky. Her ankle was entirely black now, the claws curling in and shriveling. The venom marched up toward her heart, fast and unstoppable. All her plans for after she was queen began coming back to her suddenly. _I … would have killed Scarlet … allied myself with Queen Ruby to make sure another conniving viper like you doesn't start a meaningless war again. I would have … even would have made a truce with the dragonets … and the SeaWings and Ice Wings … even Blaze. I would have kept killing things … but I'd try to be at peace with the other tribes … I n-never would have been like Blister._

"Is there anything we can do?" Sunny asked. "Clay? Starflight?"

 _No,_ Burn thought through her pain. _There isn't. It's … too late to find my antidote to … its venom._

Starflight shook his head mutely.

Burn rolled onto her back, wheezing as the black tendrils looped together in the center of her chest. Her arm flopped to the ground, her talons opened, and the first snake slithered loose onto the stones of the courtyard. She reached for it, but it slithered away before she could get her dying talons around it and keep it away from the other dragons.

 _My egg … my dragonet. She'll never know its parents …_ She had time to remember that The Outclaws had killed General Sandstorm. … _or the whole truth about me, that I really wasn't as much of a monster as some made me out to be … I would have been a good mother for my daughter. Yes, I know … it would have been female._

Before she died, Burn's mind had managed to show one last image of her lone egg hatching with her on a night just like this and a happy daughter seeing her mother for the first time. She hoped somebody would take good care of her daughter for her…

In her last few seconds, Burn had thought, _Because I won't be … able to now … I pray … my daughter's life will be as perfect as … dragonly possible…_


End file.
